Man who claims he was sought by Zimbabwean machete gang wins challenge to refugee refusal
The man went before an International Protection Appeals Tribunal (Ipat), which in 2023 refused his application for refugee/international protection status.
The tribunal said his claim lacked 'general credibility'. It said this finding was based on what it said were inconsistencies in the detail of his claim for protection given at an oral hearing compared to what he had outlined at earlier stages in the process.
The man then brought judicial review proceedings but, due to circumstances beyond his control, the case was outside the time limit for doing so and he had to apply for an extension of time.
READ MORE
Mr Justice Garrett Simons overturned the Ipat decision, saying it was vitiated by an error of law and extended time for the bringing of the case.
The judge said the man had told the International Protection Office in 2022 that he 'ran away from Zimbabwe as I was being looked for by the machete gang', who accused him of sponsoring the activities of an opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
He said the gang also wanted 500g of gold from him and he feared for his life. The gang has terrorised, killed and stolen from people throughout the country, he said, but nothing has been done to them.
He said that after he ran away, they threatened his wife and children, who themselves ran away to his in-laws. Their homestead was burned down, he said.
While he sympathised with the MDC, he said he did not belong to any political party as he knows the dangers associated with doing so. He believes the gang belongs to the ruling Zanu PF party because if you try to bring them to justice, nothing is done.
He said he had worked hard in gold mining to support his family.
He said he told immigration officials later in 2022 that the day he left, he got a phone call from a fellow gold miner who told him the gang were looking for him and wanted 500g of gold he had.
At his Ipat interview, the man further stated that in the days after he left Zimbabwe, he received a telephone call from a man who identified himself as a sergeant in the Zimbabwean police force. The man told him to present himself at a police station for questioning.
He said this event reinforced his suspicions of, and a belief in, a dangerous and harmful link between the gang and the state and police.
The Ipat expressed concerns over inconsistencies in 'central aspects' of his claim and the introduction of 'significant new claims'. It refused his appeal.
In his ruling overturning that decision, the judge said the Ipat failed to properly apply the principles governing the assessment of the man's general credibility.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Mass starvation spreading across Gaza as supplies sit outside enclave, aid groups warn
More than 100 largely aid and rights groups on Wednesday called for governments to take action as hunger spreads in Gaza , including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid. In a statement signed by 111 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, the groups warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave even as tons of food, clean water, medical supplies and other items sit untouched just outside Gaza as humanitarian organisations are blocked from accessing or delivering them. 'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,' the organisations said. 'The Government of Israel 's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.' READ MORE [ 'Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die': News agency staff warn journalists face starvation Opens in new window ] The organisations called for governments to demand that all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions be lifted, all land crossings be opened, access to everyone across Gaza to be ensured and for the rejection of military-controlled distribution and a restoration of a 'principled, UN-led humanitarian response.' 'States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.' Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, denies it is responsible for shortages of food. Israeli and Arab activists take part in a rally calling for an end to the war on Gaza and the famine stemming from it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday. Photograph: EPA More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centres. The foundation, backed by the United States, has been fiercely criticised by humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality. Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians in air strikes, shelling and shooting since launching their assault on Gaza in response to attacks on Israel by the Hamas group that killed 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages in October 2023. For the first time since the war began, Palestinian officials say dozens are now also dying of hunger. Gaza has seen its food stocks run out since Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March and then lifted that blockade in May with new measures it says are needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups. The Norwegian Refugee Council told Reuters on Tuesday its aid stocks were completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving, and the organisation accused Israel of paralysing its work. – Reuters (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
US to destroy almost $10m in contraceptives rather than send abroad for women in need
The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7 million (€8.34m) worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need. A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July. 'It is unacceptable that the State Department would move forward with the destruction of more than $9m in taxpayer-funded family planning commodities purchased to support women in crisis settings, including war zones and refugee camps,' Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said in a statement. Ms Shaheen and Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, have introduced legislation to stop the destruction. 'This is a waste of US taxpayer dollars and an abdication of US global leadership in preventing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal deaths,' added Ms Shaheen, who in June sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio , about the matter. READ MORE The department decided to destroy the contraceptives because it could not sell them to any 'eligible buyers', in part because of US laws and rules that prohibit sending US aid to organisations that provide abortion services, counsel people about the procedure or advocate for the right to it overseas, according to the state department spokesperson. Most of the contraceptives have less than 70 per cent of their shelf life left before they expire, the spokesperson said, and rebranding and selling the contraceptives could cost several million dollars. However, the aide who visited the warehouse said that the earliest expiration date they saw on the contraceptives was 2027, and that two-thirds of the contraceptives did not have any USAid labels that would need to be rebranded. The eradication of the contraceptives is part of the Trump administration's months-long demolition of the Agency for International Development (USAid), the largest funding agency for humanitarian and development aid in the world. After the unofficial 'department of Government efficiency' (Doge) erased 83 per cent of USAID's programmes, Rubio announced in June that USAID's entire international workforce would be abolished and its foreign assistance programs would be moved to the state department. The agency will be replaced by an organisation called United States First. In total, the funding cuts to USAid could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a recent study published in the journal the Lancet. A third of those deaths could be children. 'If you have an unintended pregnancy and you end up having to seek unsafe abortion, it's quite likely that you will die,' said Sarah Shaw, the associate director of advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, a global family planning organisation that works in nearly 40 countries. 'If you're not given the means to space or limit your births, you're putting your life at risk or your child's life at risk.' The fact that the contraceptives are going to be burned when there's so much need – it's just egregious Sar Shaw, MSI Reproductive Choices MSI tried to purchase the contraceptives from the US Government, Ms Shaw said. But the Government would only accept full price – which Shaw said the agency could not afford, given that MSI would also have to shoulder the expense of transportingthe contraceptives and the fact that they are inching closer to their expiration date, which could affect MSI's ability to distribute them. The state department spokesperson did not specifically respond to a request for comment on Ms Shaw's allegation, but MSI does provide abortions as part of its global work, which may have led the department to rule it out as an 'eligible buyer'. In an internal survey, MSI programs in 10 countries reported that, within the next month, they expect to be out of stock or be on the brink of being out of stock of at least one contraceptive method. The countries include Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Senegal, Kenya and Sierra Leone. Ms Shaw expects the stock to be incinerated. 'The fact that the contraceptives are going to be burned when there's so much need – it's just egregious,' she said. 'It's disgusting.' The Department of State spokesperson did not respond to a request for information on the planned method of destruction. The destruction of the contraceptives is, to Ms Shaw, emblematic of the overall destruction of a system that once provided worldwide help to women and families. USAid funding is threaded through so much of the global supply chain of family planning aid that, without its money, the chain has come apart. In Mali, Ms Shaw said, USAid helped pay for the gas used by the vehicles that transport contraceptives from a warehouse. Without the gas money, the vehicles were stuck – and so were the contraceptives. 'I've worked in this sector for over 20 years and I've never seen anything on this scale,' Ms Shaw said. 'The speed at which they've managed to dismantle excellent work and really great progress – I mean, it's just vanished in weeks.' Food waste Other kinds of assistance are also reportedly being wasted. This week, the Atlantic reported that almost 500 metric tons of emergency food were expiring and would be incinerated, rather than being used to feed about 1.5 million children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, almost 800,000 Mpox vaccines that were supposed to be sent to Africa are now unusable because they are too close to their expiration date, according to Politico. The cuts to foreign aid are slated to deepen. Early on Friday morning, Congress passed a bill to claw back roughly $8 billion that had been earmarked for foreign assistance. 'It's not just about an empty shelf,' Ms Shaw said. 'It's about unfulfilled potential. It's about a girl having to drop out of school. It's about someone having to seek an unsafe abortion and risking their lives. That's what it's really about.' – Guardian
Irish Times
17-07-2025
- Irish Times
Man who claims he was sought by Zimbabwean machete gang wins challenge to refugee refusal
The High Court has overturned a refugee status refusal for a man who says he was a self-employed gold miner in Zimbabwe before fleeing because a machete gang was looking for him. The man went before an International Protection Appeals Tribunal (Ipat), which in 2023 refused his application for refugee/international protection status. The tribunal said his claim lacked 'general credibility'. It said this finding was based on what it said were inconsistencies in the detail of his claim for protection given at an oral hearing compared to what he had outlined at earlier stages in the process. The man then brought judicial review proceedings but, due to circumstances beyond his control, the case was outside the time limit for doing so and he had to apply for an extension of time. READ MORE Mr Justice Garrett Simons overturned the Ipat decision, saying it was vitiated by an error of law and extended time for the bringing of the case. The judge said the man had told the International Protection Office in 2022 that he 'ran away from Zimbabwe as I was being looked for by the machete gang', who accused him of sponsoring the activities of an opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). He said the gang also wanted 500g of gold from him and he feared for his life. The gang has terrorised, killed and stolen from people throughout the country, he said, but nothing has been done to them. He said that after he ran away, they threatened his wife and children, who themselves ran away to his in-laws. Their homestead was burned down, he said. While he sympathised with the MDC, he said he did not belong to any political party as he knows the dangers associated with doing so. He believes the gang belongs to the ruling Zanu PF party because if you try to bring them to justice, nothing is done. He said he had worked hard in gold mining to support his family. He said he told immigration officials later in 2022 that the day he left, he got a phone call from a fellow gold miner who told him the gang were looking for him and wanted 500g of gold he had. At his Ipat interview, the man further stated that in the days after he left Zimbabwe, he received a telephone call from a man who identified himself as a sergeant in the Zimbabwean police force. The man told him to present himself at a police station for questioning. He said this event reinforced his suspicions of, and a belief in, a dangerous and harmful link between the gang and the state and police. The Ipat expressed concerns over inconsistencies in 'central aspects' of his claim and the introduction of 'significant new claims'. It refused his appeal. In his ruling overturning that decision, the judge said the Ipat failed to properly apply the principles governing the assessment of the man's general credibility.
